Shawn's In Bruges Review

2008 Movie #77 - In Bruges

I wanted to see this movie when it was first playing in my local theatre but just never got around to it. New movies kept coming out and I would see them, constantly putting this one on the backburner. The only available online copy was crap so I figured I would just bite the bullet with this one and wait until it came out on DVD. That day has arrived and I finally got to see this movie.

I had heard very mixed things about this one and really had no idea what to expect. I didn’t know if it was supposed to be a crime movie, a drama, an action movie, a comedy, a dark comedy, or what. In the end it turns out to be a damn good mix of just about all of those genres. If I had to pick one of those that best describes the movie it would probably be a dark (very dark) comedy. However it never sticks to one thing for too long and yet the movie never feels like it’s trying to do too many things at once.

The cast in this is just fantastic. Before I watched this movie I took a look through Colin Farrell’s filmography only to discover that well, the man just hasn’t made that many good movies. At least not movies I enjoyed. In fact overall his filmography is kinda crap. American Outlaws, Alexander, The Recruit, Miami Vice, S.W.A.T, Daredevil…not a whole hell of a lot to work with there. Though I’ll give him Phone Booth and I’ll definitely give him Minority Report, although it doesn’t really count as his movie. Anyway that was basically just an unnecessarily long way of saying that the man is really fucking good in this movie, in fact I would say he’s the highlight. He puts in a really funny and moving performance that makes a character that is very much an asshole, sympathetic and easy to route for.

Brendan Gleeson is also great as his partner, but Ralph Fiennes almost steals the whole thing late in the game. He doesn’t show up until near the end but when he does, prepare to have your fucking face rocked off. I could go on and on about the cast…actually no that’s just about everything I wanted to say about them. Nevermind.

Another thing about this movie that I have to give it huge credit for is that I had no idea what was going to happen or how the whole was going to end. That is getting rarer and rarer it seems these days. I mean even with the really good movies (Wall-e, Iron Man, etc) you pretty much know how everything is going to turn out, it’s the journey there that’s entertaining. In Bruges was one of those times where I honestly had no idea how the hell everything was going to turn out. So huge kudos for that one.

Definitely check this movie out, although it’s probably not going to be for everyone. In somes ways it reminded me of Lucky Number Slevin, a movie that will be very love it or hate it, since many people may find the movie smarmy and thinking it’s better than them. Well guess what? In Bruges is better than you so fucking deal with it.

****/5